StarCraft II

This will be the fourth ROG StarCraft II Tournament, which will be held on 2 to 4 August. The event will have 32 players competing for the $30 000 prize pool.

The groups are filled with invited and qualified players through two online qualifier tournaments (held on July 14th and 15th). The main event will have two pairs of casters, first up is Shaun "Apollo" Clark and Dario "TLO" Wünsch, the second pair is Thomas "Khaldor" Kilian with Wolf "Wolf" Schröder. The event will have hosts such as 2GD, iNcontroL, Semmler and Soe.

Group 1

In this group, one of the players having the biggest chance to progress from the starting groups is Song Hyun 'HerO' Deok. He is a consistent player with recent achievements such as winning the IPL Fight Club at Hot Import Nights defeating the Zerg player DongRaeGu 4:2 as well as being victorious at the 2012 MLG Pro Circuit/Summer/Qualifier/Invite/Korea versus one of the best Korean Terrans, aLive, winning with a 4:2 score.

Another player in this group is the 23 year old Terran who goes by the name Samuli 'Fuzer' Romppanen, his recent achievements are mostly weekly online tournament finals and semifinals. He also managed to win the Playhem Masters/GM daily over a Korean Protoss ReaL.

Now, let me present you a player known for having exceptionally strong Protoss versus Protoss. His name is Samuli 'elfi' Sihvonen and he's from Finland. Currently Elfi is only supported by a personal sponsorship and has yet to join a team. One of his recent achievements is getting second place in World Championship Series: Finland Nationals winning against the Terran player Naama with a 3:2 score. Furthermore he recently managed to win the AbsoluteArena Invitational against the Protoss player Feast with a convincing score of 4:1.

The last player of this group is the 19 year old Swedish Zerg player Rickard 'SortOf' Bergman, member of the team Western Wolves. One of his recent achievements is ranking second at the WCS: Sweden Nationals, winning against the Terran player ThorZaIN with a 2:1 / 1:2 score on both sets. Also, he recently placed second in the E-Sport SM-Championship Finals, defeating ThorZaIN once again with a 2:3 score.

Prediction: For the opening group I think HerO will advance for sure, he is one of the players with stable results. I see him dealing with this group without much of a problem, the only thing that concerns me is the PvP matches with elfi. The other player who I think it will advance in this group is elfi due to his special playstyle that's rather uncommon which will present a problem for his opponents.

Group 2

In the second group the first player we are going to present is the 22 year old Swedish Protoss player Jesper 'Bischu' Johansson from team Dignitas. His two latest achievements are being placed second in TeamLiquid StarLeague 4 Qualifiers EU #2 after playing against the Zerg player Nerchio who defeated him 2:3. Another achievement is his second place in E-Sport SM Qualifiers February he managed to secure when playing versus the Swedish Zerg player Naugrim.

Second player in the group is the 22 year old British player from team Evil Geniuses, Benjamin 'DeMusliM' Baker. Two of his recent results are finishing the WCS United Kingdom Finals being ranked second when facing Ziktomini from team Western Wolves who defeated him 1:2. Demuslim also placed second in the IPL 5 American regional after battling it out with Zerg player Sleep, ending the game with a 0:2 score. You also might remember DeMusliM who's been ranked first at the same time in Grandmaster on two servers (NA, EU).

The third player in the group is the 25 year old Korean Zerg player Jae Ho 'Moon' Jang from team Fnatic. He recently achieved to grab the second place in the 8 player tournament held at the 2012 Chinese Gaming Festival when facing the Chinese Protoss player MacSed. An interesting fact about Moon is that at one point of his career he played both Warcraft III and StarCraft II competitively. This year's participation will be a change from what we've seen last year as Moon is now fully focused on StarCraft II only.

The final player in the group is the 18 year old Finnish Protoss player Vesa 'Welmu' Hovinen from team Eclypsia. His recent results include getting third place in the World Championship Series: Finland Nationals, taking down Serral, core and imakki before losing to his landsman Naama, a Terran player. This caused him to drop down into the losers bracket. In said bracket, Welmu lost to elfi who defeated him with a score of 0-2. Welmu managed to grab the first place in TeamLiquid StarLeague 4 Qualifiers EU #6, defeating the Terran player Major with a 3:2 victory.

Prediction: I'm placing my bet concerning which of the players of group two will advance in the next round on DeMusliM because of his aggressive playstyle. Moon definitely has a shot as well, he's shown some really great skills and gameplay in the past.

Group 3

The first player in group three is the 23 year old Korean Terran player Choi Yun 'TheStC' Sik from the team Quantic Gaming. Lately he managed to grab the second place in 2012 South Korea WCS preliminaries, losing 0:2 to the Korean Zerg player BBoong from team Prime.

Player two who's a part of this group is the Swedish Protoss John 'Seiplo' Seipel, running under the flag of team Alien Invasion. One of his recent achievements is placing third in the World Championship Series: Sweden Nationals, losing to the Swedish Zerg player SortOf with a 0:2 score. Another decent result by him is his first place in Antec Attack #24 which he achieved by defeating the 22 year old Russian Zerg player sLivko with a score 3:1 of.

Another player i'd like to introduce is the fan favourite Chris 'HuK' Loranger. He's 23 years old, lives in Canada and plays for Evil Geniuses. One of his recent achievements is getting fourth place in 2012 MLG Winter Championship, losing against the Korean Terran player Heart with a 2:4 score.Lately, he also managed to be ranked third in the 2012 MLG Winter Arena, losing to DongRaeGu 0:2.

The last player is the 19 year old Finnish Terran player Santeri 'Naama' Lahtinen from the team Fnatic. One of his recent result is first place in the World Championship Series: Finland Nationals, defeating the finnish Protoss player elfi.

Prediction: From group three I will be going with HuK. Due to his micro oriented builds this guy can make miracles happen. The other player who has a good chance to advance to the next group is TheStC.

Group 4

The first player in the fourth group is the 17 year old Korean Terran player Young Seo 'TaeJa' Yoon from the Team Liquid. One of his recent results is getting first place in the ESV TV Korean Weekly Season 3 Grand Prix 2, defeating the korean Protoss player Squirtle with a 4:1 score. Also, he lately won the 2012 MLG Pro Circuit Summer Arena, defeating the Korean Protoss player Alicia with a 4:2 victory. An interesting fact about TaeJa is that he reached #1 ELO in TLPD after his consecutive victories in the ESV TV Korean Weekly.

Another player you can find in this group is 18 year old Dutch Protoss player Kevin 'Harstem' de koning from Fnatic. Harstem played in the 2012 World Championship Series: Italy Nationals. His first match started off with a loss to Ret and fell straight to the losers bracket. Once he hit that bracket, Harstem took out NOLot and PoYo. After that, he had to face Ret once again and lost by a score of 0-2, finishing the tournament being placed fourth.

Third player in the group is none other than Gregory 'IdrA' Fields, 22 years old and playing Zerg for team Evil Geniuses. Of late he managed to place fourth in the World Championship Series: USA Nationals, losing a ZvZ set against daisuki 1:2. IdrA was known to be one of the best NA players not too long ago. Now he's rebuilding himself after experience a string of bad results.

The final player in group 4 is the Finnish Zerg player Jonne 'Protosser' Sotala playing for team mousesports. Protosser played in the World Championship Series: Finland Nationals. After defeating Tropic, elfi and Fuzer, he met elfi again in the losers' bracket and lost 0:2, ending up with fourth place.

Prediction: In this group I will be going with Taeja due to his recent achievements at various events. The second player who will most likely advance to the next group is IdrA. Due to the recent improvements of his playstyle he became a lot harder to predict.

Group 5

First player in the group is our very own and fan favoured Korean Protoss player . One of the many successful achievements in MC's history is getting second place in the 2012 GSL Season 3, where he was defeated by the Korean Protoss player Seed with a score of 1:4. His second recent achievement is getting third place in the North American Star League Season 3, defeating the Zerg player Ret with a convincing score of 4:0.

MC's group is very dangerous, as it features two extremely good players, one of them being Jon 'BabyKnight' Andersen from Denmark. He recently won World Championship Series: Denmark Nationals and managed to qualify for the TSL 4, albeit through points.

Third player in the group is the 22 year old russian Protoss player Oleg 'TitaN' Kuptsov, recently winning World Championship Series: Russia Nationals over Happy with a 4:1 victory.

Last but not least, the 20 year old Russian Zerg player Andrey 'LiveZerg' Guldiashov will be competing in this group as well. He's winning a couple of ZOTAC/Online tournaments versus top players like Nerchio, the Homestory Cup V winner.

It will be a hard group for MC, his first match will be against BabyKnight. PvP is a match up you never know what will happen in the first 5-6 minutes of the game.

Prediction: One of the players of this group who has a high chances of getting into the next group will be MC. His stable and constant success proves that he definitely got what it takes to win. The second player i estimate to succeed will most likely be BabyKnight, who's been showing that he is a player who you don’t want to mess with lately.

Group 6

The first player in this group is the 22 year old Korean Terran player Ji Soo 'ForGG' Park playing for team Millenium. ForGG made his debut in Code S in GSL 2012 Season 1. Despite his domination in Code A last season, ForGG ended up placing last in his Code S group losing to both Leenock and MC to drop him back down to Code A.

The 16 year old Scottish Zerg player Paul "JonnyREcco" Whyte who's currently playing for Team Dignitas is also competing in this group. One of his most recent results is placing third in the WCS United Kingdom Finals, being defeated by the Terran player DeMusliM with a 1:2 score. He has also qualified for the Round of 16 of TSL defeating none other than Naniwa, he showed some really impressive games against the top 4 finisher in this seasons GSL.

Thirdly, we have the 18 year old Polish Protoss player Grzegorz 'MaNa' Komincz playing for Mousesports. Lately, he managed to grab first place in the TeamLiquid StarLeague 4 Qualifiers EU #4, defeating the Korean Terran player SeleCT with a 3:1 score. Furthermore he also finished the 2012 DreamHack Open/Summer event being ranked first, where he managed to defeat the Ukrainian Zerg player DIMAGA with a score of 3:1.

The last player to complete this group is the 25 year old Finn Juha-Matti 'Satiini' B&auml;ckstr&ouml;m who's attending for Incredible Panic. His recent results are top ranks in various online cups, where he faced players like Nerchio, Happy and Elfi.

Prediction: When it comes to group six, I think that one of the players to advance who will most likely advance is ForGG. I have been following his stream and came to the conclusion that this guy really enjoys battling and never gives up. My second tip of who'll make it is MaNa. As he went full time professional, this guy is a killing machine and it will be on full display at Assembly.

Group 7

First player from this group is also known as the “King of drones”. It's the 26 year old Dutch Zerg player Joseph 'Ret' de Kroon, fighting under the flag of Team Liquid. Of late he managed to grab the fourth place in the North American Star League Season 3, defeated by the Korean boss Protoss MC with a score of 0:4. Another freshly gained achievement is his first place in the TeamLiquid StarLeague 4 Qualifiers EU #5, defeating the German Protoss player HasuObs with a 3:0 score.

Player two to battle in this group is the 22 year old Swedish Zerg player Jonas 'Cytoplasm' Larsson who's a member of Alien Invasion. His recent achievements are mainly winning several online cups. At DreamHack Summer he managed to make it into the Top 16 by beating MorroW, PuMa, Dragon and fraer before getting knocked out by MaNa.

The next player who's competing amongst the others is the 23 year old Ukrainian Terran player Mihail 'Kas' Hayda, playing for Team Empire. One of his many achievements is getting third place in the IEM Season VI - Global Challenge Kiev, where he was defeated by the Korean Zerg player Zenio. Since his main source of practice is ladder, his playstyle is solid and suited to deal with everything his opponents throw at him. Due to his great amount of laddering he now has over 9000 league wins on his main account on the European server.

The last player in the group is the 19 year old Zerg player Conan "Suppy" Liu from America, playing for team Evil Geniuses. One of his recent results is getting third place in the AGL-June Invitational, losing to the Korean Terran player IceCream with a score of 0:2. Another successful events in his career is winning the Space Whales Showdown 3, defeating the Protoss player Theory with a 3:0 victory.

Prediction: I think that both Ret and Kas have what it takes to advance and get into the next round. Ret always shows great results in tournaments, and the aggressive/economic style of Kas is something I'm personally a fan of.

Group 8 info

First player in this final group is the 25 year old Swedish Protoss player Kim 'SaSe' Hammar who's in for some action under the name of Quantic Gaming. One of his notable results is getting first place in the TeamLiquid StarLeague 4 Qualifiers EU #3, defeating the Protoss player Pink. Of late he also managed to be placed fourth in the 2012 MLG Pro Circuit Spring Championship, where he played against the Korean Protoss Alicia and lost with a score of 1:2. SaSe is one of the players that popularized the sentry drops, using them in almost every matchup (mostly in PvZ).

Up next is the 24 year old Romanian Protoss player Silviu 'NightEnD' Lazar who found a home at Fnatic. Lately, he managed to be placed second in the 2012 StarCraft II World Championship Series: Combined European Nationals, defeated by the Zerg player LoWeL.

Third player in the group is the 21 year old Korean Terran player Ho Joon 'PuMa' Lee playing for the team Evil Geniuses. One of his recent achievements is getting second place in the IEM Season VI - World Championship, defeated by none other than the Korean Protoss MC with a score of 2:3.

The group is completed by the 25 year old Terran player Pavel 'BratOK' Kuznetsov from Russia, playing for team Team Empire. One of his recent achievements is getting second place in The Gathering 2012, defeated by the Terran player LucifroN with a 1:4 score.

Prediction: I estimate that one of the players who're most likely gonna make it into the next round is SaSe because of his aggressive/micro oriented style. The second player i place my bet on is PuMa, whose aggressive/1/1/1 builds a true Protoss killer.

The action kicks off tomorrow at 14:00 CET. The tournament, that's gonna take place over a time of three days in total, will host some of the best StarCraft 2 action this summer so don't miss out!

You can find more coverage featuring Assembly Summer and other tournaments here on SK-Gaming.com in the future.